Advertising Blockers: What They Are And How They Work

“Adblocker” is a term used to refer to any type of software or hardware that removes ads from a web page.

SOFTWARE

They can be installed in browsers (Firefox, Chrome, Safari …) in just a few seconds and for free. The main ones are the ones I mention below, although there are also others such as Adblock for Youtube, Adblock Pro, Adguard Adblocker, uBlock Origin or uBlock.

HARDWARE

They are devices that connect to a router, something very common in companies that do not want their employees to access certain Internet services. It is known for example AdTrap, a tool to block ads on multiple devices that work with the same Internet connection, including mobile phones.

Evolution of advertising blockers

As you can see in the graph that I include below, according to Google Trends, the search frequency of “Adblock” has been growing from 2012 onwards, reaching its maximum points in January and September 2015.

14% of Internet users have an advertising blocker installed

Users between 18 and 24 years old are the most used by this type of blockers

The use of advertising blockers is higher in videogame portals as well as in social networks

The percentage of blockers in mobile is still very low (0.4%), although an increase is expected

Advantages and disadvantages of advertising blockers

I’m going to review the main ones so that you better understand, on the one hand, why their use has increased, and on the other, why it negatively affects the business model of web media and portals and indirectly to us as recipients of the information.

ADVANTAGE

Faster loading of the page

Lower resource consumption (bandwidth, CPU, memory, etc.)

Cleaner visualization of web portals

Greater privacy to be left out of the segmentation of the advertising platforms

Less chance of infection

DISADVANTAGES

Goodbye to information “free”: Advertising is an important source of income (in many cases the only one) if they go down to the webs they have no choice but to look for alternatives, such as paid subscriptions, to compensate for the time dedicated to the creation of the content.

Incomplete information: If the media or web portals opt for the subscription models, there will be a lot of information that you can only access by paying

The 3 most successful advertising blockers

1) AdBlocker Ultimate (for Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Opera)

This advertising blocker stands out for being compatible with a greater number of browsers at the same time and for the strictness of its policies. It has no affiliation with advertising companies or corporate sponsorships and prides itself on not missing any ads.

And that’s not all: in addition to intrusive advertising, AdBlocker Ultimate also helps you filter malware and adware and avoid tracking your Internet activities. It is a good solution if you want to forget everything and rest easy, but in return, it does not offer the flexibility of other blockers to allow certain forms of advertising.

2) AdBlock Plus (for Firefox, Chrome and Opera)

This advertising blocker is compatible with the most common browsers, in addition to having applications that can be integrated with both Android and iOS.

AdBlock Plus is very easy to configure since it has predesigned filters that allow you to block most ads quickly. It can also filter malware and social media buttons.

If you are an advanced user, you can customize this adblock with your own filters or add a “white list” so that your favorite websites continue to earn advertising revenue when you visit them.

Another interesting aspect of AdBlock Plus is that it does not block all ads by default, but allows the browser to continue displaying ads that it considers non-intrusive. Of course, if you prefer not to see anything, you can also disable this option in the configuration.

3) AdBlock (for Chrome, Opera and Safari)

Despite the similarity of its name, this ad blocker is not related to AdBlock Plus. It is one of the most downloaded extensions for Chrome and Safari and has the confidence of millions of users around the world.

AdBlock uses a series of lists and filters to block content that comes from servers and advertising providers automatically. You can keep the default options, subscribe to other filters, create your own or include websites on the whitelist to keep advertising on them.